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IFTF Artist-in-Residence for YBCA Urban Futures Program

Feb 20, 2015
By David Evan Harris

I'm excited to report that today marks an important new partnership for the Institute for the Future: we are collectively joining the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) as Artist-in-Residence for its new urban futures program. IFTF will lead a year-long dialogue with artists and creative thinkers selected by YBCA called the Urban Futures Network, bringing to the group our research on Maker Cities / Open Cities and our 47-year history of guiding strategic thinking about the future.

"What distinguishes a great futurist is the ability to connect ideas and data points from different, often disparate areas, and to see new patterns. A good futurist creates new frameworks, new lenses through which to see the world, and communicates them as compelling stories that help people make better decisions and ultimately shape a more desirable future.

"In this sense, futures work is more of like art. Like an artist who uses brushes and paints, a futurist uses various techniques—scenarios, historical analysis, surveys, intuition, and signals (things around us that point to future directions) to create foresight. As is the case with a good artist, the more years you spend training and doing futures work, the better you get. In this sense, I think of a great futurist as an artist of the futures craft—someone who knows a lot about a lot of different things and is able to connect ideas from across disciplines to create something unique, a story that transforms the audience and inspires people to think differently."

While most researchers at IFTF are trained in a wide variety of backgrounds, we have always taken pride in communicating our research findings with the public through an ongoing and ever-evolving collaboration with our in-house creative design team. We have become known internationally for our maps (see our Da Vinci-inspired map) that provide a visual framework for understanding complex problems as well as our artifacts from the future, which are currently on exhibit at our recently launched Gallery for the Future.

We are thrilled to have the opportunity to deepen our relationship with the arts and artists through our residency at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. IFTF has collaborated in a variety of ways with YBCA since 2010, including supporting the Global Lives Project's artist residency and world premiere exhibit at YBCA in 2010, leading conversations and contributing to the curatorial strategy for the 2013-2014 Dissident Futures exhibit, and co-hosting the Open City / Art City Festival in 2014.

From YBCA's announcement:

YBCA is a home for creative thinkers and makers of all kind. Our ability to bring together different people, communities, and resources allows us to pursue breakthrough solutions to the challenges facing our community today.[See full announcement from YBCA]